Newsletter 8

Welcome back. We hope that you had an enjoyable holiday. We have another busy half term ahead so please ensure that you check your child’s book bag and the school website regularly for information.

Attendance

I have analysed attendance data from September to the end of last half term.

Overall School Attendance: 95.08% (national expectation is 95+ %).

Attendance of each class:

YR Owlets: 92% YR Snowy: 93% YR Little Owls: 95%

Y1 Speckled: 94% Y1 Tawny: 95% Y1 Barn: 96%

Y2 Hawk: 95.1% Y2 Eagle: 96%

I am concerned with the attendance of children who are entitled to FSM and those who have special educational needs. I appreciate that the last two half terms saw the bug season, however, there were also many requests for leave of absence. If you received a letter indicating whether your child’s attendance fell within the Red (below 85%) or Amber (85 – 95%) bands, please ensure that you make every effort to send your child to school for the remainder of the year. School Governors are currently in discussion about whether to invoke a legal solution in line with the Government’s request on parents whose children have poor attendance and punctuality. At present, the school has the right to refer families to the Locality Team department of Children’s Services to request support for families.

INSET dates reminder

School will be closed for staff training on:

Friday 4th April – Focus = New Curriculum

Monday 30th June – Focus = Pupil Progress / Data Analysis

Volunteers

Thank you to all those parents who have volunteered to paint the YR fence. We are just waiting for some dry weather so we can make a start! We shall contact you with dates and times soon.

Free School Meals

If you think your child may be entitled to free school meals and you have not already applied, please do so as the school receives extra funding for all children who are eligible. There is a simple online checking facility at:

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/caterers/hc3s

All you need to do is enter your name, national insurance number or asylum number, your address and your child’s details. Press ‘submit’ and you will find out if your child is eligible. If your result comes back ‘found’, this means that your child is eligible for free school meals and the system automatically tells the school.

Alternatively you may collect an application form from the school office and the office can do the check for you.

Money

Once again we would like to remind parents that no loose money should be paid over the desk in the office. If you need to pay for dinner money, trips, etc, please put the money in separate named envelopes, stating the amount and what it is for and place this in your child’s zippy wallet. This should then be handed to your child’s class teacher so that it can be logged before being sent to the office for banking. Please also note that any money for FOM (Friends of Merton) should also be placed in a separate named envelope as this goes into a separate bank account.